U.S. Willing to Roll Back Missile-Defense Plans in Europe

By

Jay Solomon and

Jonathan Weisman

Updated March 3, 2009 6:32 p.m. ET

The Obama administration is suggesting to Russia that it might be willing to roll back U.S. missile-defense plans in Europe, in what senior U.S. officials called one plank of a strategy to isolate Iran.

Washington's overture to Moscow is contingent upon Russia more aggressively joining an international effort to stop Iran's expanding nuclear program, according to these officials.

President Barack Obama said reducing Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons lessens the need for missile defense, but he has offered no "quid pro quo" on the matter with Russia. The president spoke Tuesday in the Oval Office alongside visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

ENLARGE

President Obama meets with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the Oval Office.
Associated Press

The offer comes as the Obama administration is intensifying efforts to gain the cooperation of Iran's other key financial and strategic partners, particularly Syria and China.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was dispatching two senior envoys to Damascus to explore potential strategic cooperation, reversing the Bush administration's policy of isolating Damascus diplomatically. Syria is Iran's principal ally in the Middle East.

A senior White House official confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Obama sent his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, a letter about three weeks ago offering to pull back U.S. missile-shield plans in Europe in exchange for Moscow's cooperation in isolating Iran.

"What I said in the letter is the same thing that I've said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed towards not Russia, but Iran," Mr. Obama said Tuesday.

Russia is building for Iran a heavy-water nuclear reactor in the city of Bushehr, and is in negotiations with Tehran to sell sophisticated missile systems.

Former President George W. Bush's administration developed plans to deploy missile-interceptor systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Bush officials saw that as central to a U.S. strategy to protect American allies from Iranian and North Korea missiles. Moscow regularly complained that the system was actually targeting Russia.

Senior U.S. officials have made clear in recent weeks that the U.S. could alter its missile-defense plans. They have stressed this is contingent on Moscow helping the U.S. develop mechanisms for containing the Iranian nuclear and missile threat.

The State Department's No. 3 diplomat, William Burns, carried this message to Moscow in mid-February.

"If, through strong diplomacy with Russia and our other partners, we can reduce or eliminate that threat [from Iran], it obviously shapes the way that we look at missile defense," Mr. Burns told Russia's Interfax news agency. "We are also open to the possibility of cooperation with Russia and with our NATO partners on new missile-defense configurations."

When asked if the U.S. could scrap its plans for deploying a missile shield in Europe should the Iran nuclear issue be addressed, Mr. Burns answered: "It means that that is certainly one of the factors that we will consider."

An American diplomat said missile defense and Iran are two issues Mrs. Clinton plans to raise with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, when they meet in Geneva Friday.

"We continue to believe we have to take all steps necessary to protect ourselves, our friends, our allies from a potential aggressive action in the future from Iran," Mrs. Clinton said. "But there's a broad agenda to discuss with the Russians."

Mrs. Clinton also pressed the Chinese government to tighten its financial links to Iran during a visit to Beijing last month. She asked her Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, to curb Beijing's oil and gas investments in Iran, according to a U.S. official. Mr. Yang said these investments don't violate United Nations sanctions against Iran.

Russian officials are offering no clear indications about how they will respond to the Obama administration's overture, though they have praised the new tone coming out of Washington.

Messrs. Medvedev and Obama spoke by phone after Mr. Obama's January inauguration. Mr. Medvedev said Tuesday in Moscow that there was no talk with Washington of a direct trade-off on missile defense in exchange for Moscow tightening the financial screws on Tehran.

"We are already working in close contact with our U.S. counterparts on the Iranian nuclear issue," Mr. Medvedev said at a news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

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